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If you are looking for a competition ballet kite the Fearless or SD is a good choice. If you are looking for a freestyle trick machine you would be hard put to pass-up a DS or Talon. What do you want to do?

In my case I own 4 Fearless kites and fly the STD the most. It reacts better then the other Fearless kite in my inland gusty wind conditions.

Without wishing to reopen old wounds and at the risk of having to moderate myself...

in this thread we've heard that the Fearless Light can and has been flown and tricked across the wind window in 22, gusting to 28, mph winds. Another statement was that at 20mph the frame was untroubled. With this in mind I had a chat earlier today with a flyer with a long competition history who is familiar (in passing) with the Fearless. His commentary on this subject would, if repeated here, get me banned. He reminded me that under IRBC rules 28mph is the maximum allowable wind speed and at that point everyone would be on heavily vented kites with slow down devices and rope for lines. He had very firm advice about what sort of kite in terms of set up, framing, lines, etc. he would consider flyable in those windspeeds and Light didn't cover it.

With all this in mind:- what exactly is this Fearless Light that is/was being used in those conditions ? How is it framed ? We haven't accidentally slipped over into Light Vented have we ? Are we merely talking at cross purposes here ?

Really I'm simply asking. My idea of what a Fearless Light constitutes (3PTs, reduced reinforcement...) I genuinely would be truly impressed if it did these things and, yes, I'd be thinking seriously about a kite bag cull. And wondering why no-one else had managed the same thing.

Without wishing to reopen old wounds and at the risk of having to moderate myself...

in this thread we've heard that the Fearless Light can and has been flown and tricked across the wind window in 22, gusting to 28, mph winds. Another statement was that at 20mph the frame was untroubled.

I made the original statement - perhaps saying the frame is untroubled was an overstatement, but it certainly was not flapping or in any imminent danger or breakage. As Jim previously said, 2 flyers and one in particular flew the Light all day in that wind while most of us were using standards and vents. I think it is highly unwise to fly the Light in 20+mph, but i have no stability concerns at all flying mine in 15.

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With all this in mind:- what exactly is this Fearless Light that is/was being used in those conditions ? How is it framed ? We haven't accidentally slipped over into Light Vented have we ? Are we merely talking at cross purposes here ?

It was being used because it was the only kite they brought to the fly. The Light Vented IS the kite to fly in those winds. I was flying mine last weekend in 20mph - working on the comete, flew for hours and hours. And yes, the FVL is 3pt frame with 5pt lower spreader - just like the Light, but it has vents.

This whole thing has been blown out of proportion no -one (well, perhaps Lam - he seems to like to fly kites on their high end) would look forward to flying their Light in 20mph wind.

Without wishing to reopen old wounds and at the risk of having to moderate myself...

in this thread we've heard that the Fearless Light can and has been flown and tricked across the wind window in 22, gusting to 28, mph winds. Another statement was that at 20mph the frame was untroubled. With this in mind I had a chat earlier today with a flyer with a long competition history who is familiar (in passing) with the Fearless. His commentary on this subject would, if repeated here, get me banned. He reminded me that under IRBC rules 28mph is the maximum allowable wind speed and at that point everyone would be on heavily vented kites with slow down devices and rope for lines. He had very firm advice about what sort of kite in terms of set up, framing, lines, etc. he would consider flyable in those windspeeds and Light didn't cover it.

With all this in mind:- what exactly is this Fearless Light that is/was being used in those conditions ? How is it framed ? We haven't accidentally slipped over into Light Vented have we ? Are we merely talking at cross purposes here ?

Really I'm simply asking. My idea of what a Fearless Light constitutes (3PTs, reduced reinforcement...) I genuinely would be truly impressed if it did these things and, yes, I'd be thinking seriously about a kite bag cull. And wondering why no-one else had managed the same thing.

Mike,in a spirit of enquiry.

How does one moderate oneself? And in the spirit of an honest answer (and not being lured)................the day in question was at least three months before Lam made his first production Vented Std. The vented liight didn't come out for another 5 months or more after the std.

Kite framed in 3Pt Le's and 5pt spreaders. Honestly, the only person there that could trick decently, in the center of the window, was Lam himself and every one of the Fearless there, survived the day with little or no injuries, from what I witnessed.

Mike,I checked first to see if Tom answered, this time....................Honestly......what you ask I've never seen before (not that I'm an expert, anyway) But Tom and I were both flying Tattoos yesterday with all 2Pt framing in 1-6 with gusts to 12................I believe that Lam has come up with a sail that somehow does not have the same effect as the sails on other kites..............I (again, I'm not a good flyer) have flown the Std in 3-28 and yesterday flew the light non-vented down as low as two.............What can I say........I think you have been informed, but the proof would be in the pudding, as they say?

At the moment the wind range of a full sailed Fearless Light is claimed to be around 4 to 28mph (with a switch of LSs) and that's IMMENSE. Add in something for less wind than you can feel and you're sorted from nothing to let's go home, this is silly in two kites. And if that is the case I feel we should be told.

Mike.

You do only really need 2 Fearless, but one of them is not the Light. You can easily fly from 1 to 28 with the SUL and standard vent and depending on how you want to tweak the high vs low range of the vent you could also go with the vented light.

But, having said this, I love the Light and would not be without it. Perhaps in time I will switch to the vented light (I have not had enough time on it yet, but it seems likely).

I am curious...is there any flying comparison to be made between the SD and the FL? Are they in any way similar?

I have a Sea Devil light & standard, and a Fearless SUL. All 3 are way more capable kites than I am a pilot. They just make you look way better than you would flying, let's say, a QPro. That's why I have a Fearless VL on order, and plan on selling some kites that I don't fly anymore because Lam's kites are just too much fun to fly. Right now, I'd say that I like the SDs better, but they don't fly as low as the FL SUL. I will probably change my mind once I fly a FL with a little more weight to it.~Rob.

I've struck upon an idea. I'll get a Fearless Light Vented and frame it with Aerostuff Zen spars (10g light, 4P tough) and I reckon I should be covered from a vacuum to armageddon with just the one kite.

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